Intel SSD 335 240 GB Review: Driving Down Prices With 20 nm NAND

Features
By Andrew Ku
published

Intel's SSD 335 is a refresh of the SSD 330 sporting 20 nm MLC NAND flash. Does it alter performance? Not really. Pricing? Yes. How about endurance? That's hard to say for certain. There's only one model, though, with 240 GB of capacity. We test it today.

Test Setup And Benchmarks

We continue revising and updating our SSD test procedures. Most recently, we started testing using logical volumes to better represent the performance of solid-state storage the way you'd actually use it. Unfortunately, it's a lot more difficult to generate consistent numbers this way. So, we're averaging the results of multiple iterations in an effort to better zero-in on the best results possible.

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Test Hardware
ProcessorIntel Core i5-2400 (Sandy Bridge), 32 nm, 3.1 GHz, LGA 1155, 6 MB Shared L3, Turbo Boost Enabled
MotherboardGigabyte G1.Sniper M3
MemoryKingston Hyper-X 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR3-1333 @ DDR3-1333, 1.5 V
System DriveOCZ Vertex 3 240 GB SATA 6Gb/s
Tested DrivesIntel SSD 320 300 GB SATA 3Gb/s, Firmware: 1.92
Row 5 - Cell 0 Intel SSD 320 80 GB SATA 3Gb/s, Firmware: 1.92
Row 6 - Cell 0 Intel SSD 330 240 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 300i
Row 7 - Cell 0 Intel SSD 330 180 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 300i
Row 8 - Cell 0 Intel SSD 330 120 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 300i
Row 9 - Cell 0 Intel SSD 520 240 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 400i
Row 10 - Cell 0 Intel SSD 520 60 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 400i
Row 11 - Cell 0 Samsung 830 256 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: CXMO
Row 12 - Cell 0 Samsung 830 64 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: CXMO
Row 13 - Cell 0 Crucial m4 256 GB SATA 6Gb/s Firmware: 0309
Row 14 - Cell 0 Crucial m4 64 GB SATA 6Gb/s Firmware: 0309
Row 15 - Cell 0 OCZ Vertex 3 240 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 2.15
Row 16 - Cell 0 OCZ Vertex 3 120 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 2.22
Row 17 - Cell 0 OCZ Vertex 3 60 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 2.15
Row 18 - Cell 0 OCZ Vertex 4 256 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 1.5
Row 19 - Cell 0 OCZ Agility 3 120 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 1.5
Row 20 - Cell 0 OCZ Agility 4 60 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 1.5
Row 21 - Cell 0 OCZ Vertex 4 64 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 1.5
Row 22 - Cell 0 OCZ Agility 4 256 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 1.5
Row 23 - Cell 0 OCZ Agility 4 128 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 1.5
Row 24 - Cell 0 Samsung 840 Pro 512 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: DMX02B0Q
Row 25 - Cell 0 Corsair Neutron GTX 240 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: M206
Row 26 - Cell 0 Intel SSD 335 240 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 335s 335t
Row 27 - Cell 0 OCZ Agility 4 256 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 1.5
Row 28 - Cell 0 Monster Daytona 240 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 5.0.2
GraphicsPalit GeForce GTX 460 1 GB
Power SupplySeasonic 760 W, 80 PLUS Gold
System Software and Drivers
Operating SystemWindows 7 x64 Ultimate
DirectXDirectX 11
DriverGraphics: Nvidia 270.61 RST: 10.6.0.1002 Virtu: 1.1.101
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Benchmarks
Tom's Hardware Storage Bench v1.0Trace-Based
Iometer 1.1.0# Workers = 1, 4 KB Random: LBA=8 GB, varying QDs, 128 KB Sequential, Logical LBA Span
PCMark 7Storage Suite
Andrew Ku
14 Comments Comment from the forums
  • mayankleoboy1
    Read only the conclusion. Most of these SSD's are "me-too" clones using SF2281 controller. Most have similar performance wins and pitfalls.

    I was super excited about Samsung 840. But these are meh.
    Reply
  • christophermarti
    I would say that your estimates about P/E cycles are incorrect. You also do not mention (on purpose) two modes SSD's (99%) operate in: performance mode (not filled to 90%) and storage mode (filled 90% and more). You also lack to mention that in "middle of" P/E cycle exhaustion SSD's will slow down their speed due to preserve P/E cycles and "survive" to meet warranty agreements.

    http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?271063-SSD-Write-Endurance-25nm-Vs-34nm/page211

    From test exposed in this forum You can draw conclusion how good MLC used in X-25v 40GB SSD were (more than 35000 P/E). Also that longest "standing" SSD is Samsung 830 256GB, which also do not (as an exception) slow down considerably when it passes 1PB Host Writes mark.

    Although I strongly do agree that seing writes above 10GB per day is rather rare. I'm myself using 80GB X25-M for 4 years and only 4,09 TB and i is possible that it will hold up to 1400 - 3400 TB of writes! That's amazing. What's more, I have it in Dell E6400 on Vista (no Trim, just Intel toolbox).
    Reply
  • christophermarti
    http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?271063-SSD-Write-Endurance-25nm-Vs-34nm&p=5148307&viewfull=1#post5148307 - 1000 P/E cycles (not even close to 35100 of 50nm old V40 GB).
    Reply
  • alidan
    christophermartihttp://www.xtremesystems.org/forum ost5148307 - 1000 P/E cycles (not even close to 35100 of 50nm old V40 GB).
    keep in mind that is still 240000 gb of data at minimum
    Reply
  • abbadon_34
    so if it's firmware crippled, can we just flash a the firmware and get a better drive? someone needs to do some testing....
    Reply
  • acku
    christophermartiI would say that your estimates about P/E cycles are incorrect. You also do not mention (on purpose) two modes SSD's (99%) operate in: performance mode (not filled to 90%) and storage mode (filled 90% and more). You also lack to mention that in "middle of" P/E cycle exhaustion SSD's will slow down their speed due to preserve P/E cycles and "survive" to meet warranty agreements. http://www.xtremesystems.org/forum nm/page211From test exposed in this forum You can draw conclusion how good MLC used in X-25v 40GB SSD were (more than 35000 P/E). Also that longest "standing" SSD is Samsung 830 256GB, which also do not (as an exception) slow down considerably when it passes 1PB Host Writes mark.Although I strongly do agree that seing writes above 10GB per day is rather rare. I'm myself using 80GB X25-M for 4 years and only 4,09 TB and i is possible that it will hold up to 1400 - 3400 TB of writes! That's amazing. What's more, I have it in Dell E6400 on Vista (no Trim, just Intel toolbox).
    Our calculations and endurance protocol are not effected by any speed slow down, and in every test, we've confirmed our methodology applies a WA~1%. Thus, are estimates are correct and apply to the NAND itself.

    Second, the speed of a drive has no inherent bearing on endurance. It only affects how fast you can get there. Second, you're referring to a throttling effect, which is a different topic completely. Our analysis was specific to the NAND itself.

    As further verification, another one of my peers (at another site) independently came to results for the SSD 335 similar to ours.
    Reply
  • cumi2k4
    how come vertex 4 did not get tested? didn't ocz offer 5 years for their vertex 4, and i believe they're offering them at cut-throat pricing?
    Reply
  • mayankleoboy1
    One thing i notice is that with an Antivirus program(Kaspersky Internet security) running in the background, which 95% of Toms readers would have, the AV program reads and writes data almost continuously. In a typical day, the AV program can write 5-6GB of data.
    Reply
  • jabliese
    Power consumption made me laugh. 1 watt difference between the best and worst. Time for another 1 line standard SSD review comment, "Power usage on SSD's matters little between the best and worst."

    And please keep reiterating the most important thing about an SSD is getting one. Ran into SSD resistance on another forum just a couple weeks back, which, at today's price points, blew me away.
    Reply
  • acku
    cumi2k4how come vertex 4 did not get tested? didn't ocz offer 5 years for their vertex 4, and i believe they're offering them at cut-throat pricing?
    Look again. It is included in our benchmarks.
    Reply